No holiday for Gaza’s labor sector

In Gaza City, owners of 3,800 local factories recently established a symbolic cemetery for their devastated businesses. The graves do not contain dead bodies, but rather the remains of factories, canneries, workshops and other businesses.

More than 33,000 of Gaza's laborers have been laid off recently as industries are now working at around 20 percent of their normal capacity.

"The garment industry, for example, used to employ more than 16,000 laborers, yet as long as the Israeli blockade goes on, the Palestinian garment sector won't be able to convince any Israeli companies to weave clothes, thus the situation will remain worse for such a significant sub-sector", stated Amr Hammad, the executive director of the Federation of Gaza's Industries.

Hamad added that local industries used to import 95 percent of raw materials from Israel and abroad, and 80 percent of the equipment used in the factories was bought from Israel.

"As long as this situation persists, Gaza's industries won't be able to operate even at 20 percent of their capacities. However, we made many appeals to concerned bodies like the European Union to pressure Israel for lifting the siege, but it seems that the Israelis do not listen to anyone but themselves," explained Hammad.

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